I am an evil giraffe. But I'm trying, Nick. I'm trying REAL HARD to be the wizard.

The unemployment rate rose from 9.8 to 10.2 percent in October, and nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline (-190,000), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The largest job losses over the month were in construction, manufacturing, and retail trade.

Household Survey Data

In October, the number of unemployed persons increased by 558,000 to 15.7 million. The unemployment rate rose by 0.4 percentage point to 10.2 percent, the highest rate since April 1983. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has risen by 8.2 million, and the unemployment rate has grown by 5.3 percentage points. (See table A-1.)

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (10.7 percent) and whites (9.5 percent) rose in October. The jobless rates for adult women (8.1 percent), teenagers (27.6 percent), blacks (15.7 percent), and Hispanics (13.1 percent) were little changed over the month. The unemployment rate for Asians was 7.5 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

Aside from the fact that if this administration does do something about this, they’ll have to explain why what they did back in the beginning of the year didn’t actually work. They probably don’t want to discuss the problem that Democratic legislators are more interested in passing cap-and-tax and health care rationing for their pet fringe groups than they are in fixing the economy. They definitely don’t want to talk about how a lot of this is due to moral cowardice on the part of the current ruling party…